'How did you become so wealthy?' is a question I've asked plenty of people in my life. But the answer I got from a very successful colleague of mine when I worked at Xerox wasn't about a product, or a service, or a sales  or marketing strategy. It was about a belief that underpinned everything he did. His answer was this. "I got rich by making other people rich... I add value to peoples lives." He took it upon himself every day, to go out and add value to peoples lives - whether it was his clients', or his customers' or his friends'. Now you're not necessarily going make people rich simply To View More >>

Don’t just sit there! Do something! Over the years I’ve been and done many things. Everyone has. In my case, I’ve been a Xerox salesman, a volunteer firefighter, and a successful entrepreneur. Believe it or not, all these seemingly unrelated personas had at least one thing in common, what I’m going to talk about today, and that is: A bias toward action. What do I mean by this? I mean, if there’s a choice between sitting in a conference room planning what I’m going to do, and getting out there and doing it, I hope that I choose action. This is not to knock planning, To View More >>

My regret if I did have one would be around business projects I didn't take a leap of faith to take advantage of. I don't however believe in regret as each part of ones life is purely a "step". None of us are perfect, and often we will trip. So long as we get up and do our best to put right what we broke, everything is good. If you like, all these moments become learning's ... they weave the colour and texture into the blanket we call life. I've always been proud of coming from a very entrepreneurial family, and one that has been astute at picking trends. #1 In the early 90's after years on Compuserve To View More >>

I went to a Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar a few weeks ago, which got me thinking about the wealthy men in my life and what I have learnt from them. Six came to mind almost immediately as they had taught me some very deep and fundamental lessons. The seminar itself was fairly disappointing apart from hearing Emi Kiyosaki talk about how to avoid regret, but like all things it did prompt some self-reflection and fortunately reminded me of these lessons. These men are all different, but in some ways the same They are by no means the richest people I have known, and might seem on the To View More >>

Yesterday I introduced the fact that going to a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar had me thinking of the wealthy men in my life. I started by talking about Les Harvey the unlikely property developer and how he taught me to 'set my own rules', 'be humble' and 'love my company more than my product'. One of the most successful salesmen I worked with at Xerox was a guy called John Burke (Burkie). It's been almost 15 years since I last saw him so I have no idea what he does today, but the lessons he taught are still with me. He is a great guy and I really appreciate the time he spent working with me; he was To View More >>